The Iron Curtain Trail

 Hit the bottom of the trail.... it goes off to Russia and St Petersburg now.... promised I wouldn't go that way and given current situation think a good move!

Mind you there was a definite perk.... decided to take the Turku-Stockholm ferry... wow I can recommend. Cabin was pokey so expected same  from restaurant ..... how wrong can you be.

 And again all the bikes around  me were BMW GSs.  All shiny and clean.... how Mr Honda let them take over the so called Adventure Bike world I don't know.... anyway,  had a pretty good adventure on my old Pan European!

The Iron Curtain Trail

 Sorry been quiet these last few days.... very poor roaming broadband where I've been and no WiFi!

Where have I been ....well spent the morning of the 28th riding along the border again  but this time far more isolated... and far closer.

Started by riding down to one of the few border crossing currently open... but not very busy. The political situation is causing a great deal of  financial upset here as there is a whole business setup to service Russian visitors and shoppers. The first thing Russians come across on entering Finland is a big Lidl.

 Had my first and only encounter with the Finish Border Guards and they were more concerned that I wasn't just some old guy that was totally lost. When i reassured them that old as i was I did know where i was going they just reminded me that going over  the yellow markers was not a good idea. They in turn reassured me tgat bad as the roads were ... dirt ... they didnt get any worse and were all passable with care.

It was a bit hairy I admit... not because of any real political concerns  but as I've said my bike isn't made for those roads and things like dropping it, punctures etc and no signals of any sort start to creep into mind.... always remember where the last house was us a good plan!

Border Guard van departs

The afternoon was spent at the Salpa Line Museum... I've mentioned the Salpa Line before remember...but where I saw it before it was just large stones... OK very large stones ... laid out to form tank barriers.... here it was a complicated defensive line of anti tank guns, machine gun bunkers, anti tank ditches, observation posts..  the works.

They gave yours in several languages... Guess how many people were on the English  speaking tour... yep, just me... fascination but chilling.

They'd used a special technique invented of course by the Americans of vacuum moulding concrete domes so they build a bunker in a day...damp dark places they were to live in though.

The Iron Curtain Trail

 Uukuniemi to Lappeenranta

Well I passed on another swim in the lake this morning tempting as it looked?

Immediately on leaving the campsite I came across this Tsasouna - a Russian Orthadox Chapel which looking at its site and build I assumed was old ... turns out it was actually built in 2009. 

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The two things I wantedj to do today were to visit the Simo Hayha Museum in Miettila and his grave in Ruokolahti.

I did both though the church in took some finding. Don't see why really,  it was very big and beautiful both inside and out.

I won't wear you down with details of Simo but if you are interested this is a good book.

I'm fascinated by the contribution he made to Finland's success in the Winter War and the fact that he lived to despite horrendous facial injuries from a banned exploding bullet used by the Russians

The graveyard at the church in Ruokolahti was used as the last resting place for a lot of the Finns killed in the Winter and  Continuation Wars and the  graves are as well tended as in our own Commonwealth Sites.

As with many churches in this part of the world the bell towers - magnificent buildings in their own right - are often seperate from the main church building.

I'd  been told I must visit the Sculpture Park near Parikkala

I did..... The Yorkshire Sculpture Park it is not. I found the work of Veijo Ronkkonen creepy .... partly I expect because a lot of the statues had real human teeth. No, not my thing.

At another church site I visited I saw again the graves of soldiers and civilians killed in the Winter War were maintained with care and respect. The church had obviously been destroyed ... the ruins were still there ... but the charring on and around the stones seemed to dark to have occurred 80 years ago.

On asking a local, as all the signs were  in Finnish I learned that the Church had been destroyed by arson on Christmas day last year... having survived the war I assume!